Technical communication – Page 11

Adobe Tech Comm Suite 2017 is better than ever!

Posted on February 14, 2017 by TechCommGeekMom

Recently, Adobe held a virtual press conference for the 2017 Release of the Adobe Technical Communications Suite, which launched on 31 January 2017. While the Suite continues to include the latest versions of Captivate, Acrobat, and Presenter, it’s RoboHelp (RH), the XML documentation add-on for Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), and its flagship product in the suite, FrameMaker (FM) and its related FrameMaker Server that have all received updates with this newest release.

FrameMaker itself has been around for thirty years now, but it’s been especially in the last few years that significant changes has been made to accommodate DITA support, multi-channel and mobile publishing, and support from right-to-left (RTL) languages.

With the 2017 Release, Adobe’s main objective was to provide new features while simplifying current features that would help with productivity and keep the end users in mind.

I found that now that I have a better understanding of the structured authoring views from my recent DITA course, I could see these products with a fresher perspective while I attended this virtual press conference, and better appreciate the upgrades.

The main attraction for the virtual press conference was FrameMaker, as the product has had some major overhauls, including new features centered around the authoring experience. I won’t go into all of the features, as there’s too much to review, but several of them made a big impression on me. FM has been a complicated tool to use for many years, but it seems to me that with each new release, the tool becomes more user-friendly for those who aren’t as deeply entrenched with all the bells and whistles. The new interface is more modern and usable, and there’s easier access to recent items through the Browse Computer or repository feature. This gives you access to all resources like tutorials, guides, and online help. It also allows you to access structured and unstructured items in one page. Even within the Search function, there is better auto-complete functionality which shows predictive results based on user typing through responsive HTML5 output.

An important upgrade in this 2017 release is that menus have been optimized and reorganized, with more commands to improve discover-ability. My favorite new feature within these new menu changes is that the “Special” menu is gone, and the much more logical “Insert” menu has been added. This is something that has sorely been needed for a long time to be more user-friendly interface! Why, just today I was in a different Adobe tool, and I looked to insert an image, and that particular app (a Creative Cloud app) didn’t have an “Insert” menu at all! Insert menus are commonly used in apps almost universally now, that this was a long time coming. It makes inserting objects more intuitive for an app that’s not always that intuitive. It’s one of those “DUH!” things that I’m glad Adobe has fixed for FrameMaker. The Insert menu provides one stop for inserting images, files, variables, elements, equations…you name it! For example, all that needs to be done to insert an image into a document is to go to Insert-> Image and it’s done! You don’t need DPI settings change, as the DPI settings are retained, but they can be changed. You can also do a “drag and drop” of an image into a document easily. All you do is add to your project, then drag the image into the page, and it adapts to the page. You can still adjust the size in object properties if needed. The object properties dialog is improved, as there is an option to maintain aspect ration, DPI can be set inline, and apply a check inline. The “Element” menu is also enhanced. New options have been added to insert, wrap, and change. The Insert drop down is great! It has everything you need, and will likely be heavily used.

Shortcuts for productivity got a boost, as there is a new Command Search feature that is accessed through the <F7> button and very easy to use. All shortcuts are also now listed next to menu commands so that power users can learn them more easily. <CTRL-1> provides a list of where you are within the structure of your structured authoring, which is rather convenient. Commands that are applicable globally, such as borders, text symbols, rulers, grid lines, and hotspot indicators that impact all open docs both structured and unstructured are viewable now, although there are some limitations with structured views.

PODS have also has some upgrades as well. A new paragraph designer table allows you to create new styles easily in the pod. Styling icons in table and paragraph designers have been replaced with labeled buttons, configurable options have been reorganized and relabeled, and redundant command operations have been removed. Additionally, adding or editing a conditional tag now happens thru a dialog. The former “Select” drop down list has been replaced by Filter icon. Color and background columns have been removed. Conditional takes are listed with their close to final formatting, with tooltips displayed for conditional tags listed in the pod. Several catalog PODS are also redesigned, with old buttons replaced with icons. Deletion has been made intuitive by removing extra options.

These changes have allowed the project management of a given project much easier, as now it’s easier to organize content such as a DITA map, book, topic, image, TOC, or index files related to a project in a single place whereby you can drag and drop files from Windows Explorer.

Structured Authoring gets some boosts as well. The Status bar now provides information about the exact path of the current element in your structured document. You can show or hide content from the structure view for a cleaner view as you work. Some of the new Insert menu options have been added for structured authoring, such as the Insert>Cross-Reference function, which should be very handy. There is also an improved DITA Keyspace Manager, whereby if any DITA map is opened, it gets populated automatically in drop down. The ability to search for a keyspace by entering the 1st few characters.

To keep up with the rapid changes in technology, high resolutions displays are supported now! Support for 4K resolution is now available, and allows the application to scale automatically. No separate setting is required to adjust resolution, so icons are now more sharp and size will scale automatically with the screen resolution.

Publishing features have not been forgotten, as they include brand new responsive HTML5 layouts that are modern, frameless layouts with a redefined browsing experience, are fully customizable, and can easily match the look and feel of your corporate website template. The navigation is search driven, and you also have the ability to add favorites while still being fully accessible (508 compliant).

New publishing features include the introduction of basic HTML5 formatting without any JavaScript or layout, with the look and feel controlled by CSS. This makes publishing lightweight and easy to share. Text searches within searchable vector graphics (SVG) can now be done, and supported in HTML5, as the information in the SVG files can be read and displayed as part of search results. Multimedia files are managed in assets folder in published output. Inline styles have been cleaned up, including the introduction of a setting for Excel inline styles from published output. You can publish topics to a single folder–an important organization feature. Content personalization has been improved with DITA attribute support in dynamic content filters in the indexes, and a new dialog has been introduced to select conditional attributes.

Wow, that’s a lot right there!

All these changes are great for the FrameMaker app, but what about the FrameMaker Publishing Server? No worries! The 2017 release of the FrameMaker manage remote publishing, and can publish bi-directional content across formats and devices, so it can integrate with any CMS.

RoboHelp has brand-new, responsive HTML5 layouts as well, also incorporating modern, frame-less layouts with a redefined browsing experience that’s fully customizable. The Search autocomplete is also functional here in RoboHelp as well, allowing for search in responsive HTML5 output that shows predictive results based on user typing by segment first–which is a unique feature, gives contextual results, can indicate the number of occurrences of an entered word or phrase which helps in narrowing down the matching results, and can even correct spelling mistakes as you type in the search. The new authoring features include thumbnail support for images, folder imports for baggage files, and variable view toggling.

The Adobe Technical Communications Suite 2017 Release (TCS 2017) includes these latest versions of FrameMaker and RoboHelp, as well as the latest versions of Acrobat Pro, Captivate, and Presenter, which went bought together in the Suite, provide a 58% savings over buying the tools separately.

While not formally part of the Technical Communications Suite, it’s also important to mention that the Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) XML Documentation Add-On 2.0 version has been released. If you are using AEM as your CMS or CCMS, you can host your tech and marketing content that’s written up in FrameMaker more easily through the integration of this add-on. This add-on allows for content sharing and reuse which lends itself to consistent user experience and reduced total cost of ownership. Higher content velocity helps to drive enterprise publishing features, such as batch publishing, baseline publishing, and post-publishing workflows. Enhanced review and collaboration capabilities include web-based inline review, web editor enhancements that help with content management capabilities and document life-cycle management.

If you want more information about TCS 2017, you can click on the Adobe advertisement in the right column, or email the Adobe TCS team directly at techcomm@adobe.com.

Additionally, there is a 2017 Release Launch Webinar on 15 February 2017. It’s free! Learn more and register for the event on the Adobe Event website.

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4 Lessons Learned (About Learning) From Blogging

Posted on February 10, 2017 by TechCommGeekMom

Blogs provide great insight and are a helpful educational tool. But did you know the act of blogging can teach us something, too? Danielle Villegas explains.

Source: 4 Lessons Learned (About Learning) From Blogging

Thanks to Phylise Banner, Jennifer Hofmann, and InSync Training for the opportunity to write this article for InSync Training’s blog, Body Language in the Bandwidth.

I based this article on the many years I’ve been writing here on TechCommGeekMom and other blogs I’ve written over time. I hope there’s helpful information for you here! It’s a quick read, and I enjoyed writing it.

–TechCommGeekMom

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Technical Writer – Career Rankings, Salary, Reviews and Advice | US News Best Jobs

Posted on January 17, 2017 by TechCommGeekMom

See how technical writer stacks up against other occupations.

Source: Technical Writer – Career Rankings, Salary, Reviews and Advice | US News Best Jobs

Thanks to the STC and Liz Fraley for posting this on Facebook for me to see.

I’m fortunate that I’m friends with Adriane Hunt, the STC President who is quoted in this article. It’s great to know that technical writing is listed as #3 on the US News & World Report’s top Creative & Media Jobs list. Adriane is a member of the STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter (STC-PMC), which I’m currently the vice-president of, and she’s had lots of great takeaways over the years from attending STC-PMC programs and events (like the CONDUIT conference) and other STC events.

This is a great read to remind us why we stick with technical writing and communications. It’s a profession that continues to grow, even when we think it isn’t, and we can gain great satisfaction from doing the job. It also doesn’t hurt that technical writers are usually great people as well. Adriane is a great example of that.

Check out the interview I did with her almost two years ago…the video is spotty (it was the first time I was doing it, and we had some unforeseen technical issues), but listen to the conversation, and you can see why Adriane and the STC has a great future.

A Conversation with Adriane Hunt

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2016 TechCommGeekMom Year in Review: Yeah, it could’ve been better.

Posted on January 13, 2017 by TechCommGeekMom

Bored girl expressing, "Seriously though, do you think it could've been worse?" — Seriously though, do you think it could’ve been worse?

As 2017 gets going, I realized that I haven’t written a whole lot in the past year. Why? Simple–not a whole lot to write about, frankly. 2016 was a rough year in many ways, but there were some good elements, too.

It’s hard to write about things when you feel like nothing is inspiring you or giving you little motivation. I remember feeling excited about tech comm for the first few years, and it was much easier, as I was learning new things constantly. Now, while there is still a lot for me to learn, it’s not quite as much in some instances. It’s probably like anything else, in that movements go in waves, and the mobile wave first took hold right about the time I started to study tech comm and get involved in tech comm. Now, it’s something that we take for granted, like electricity or running water in developed countries. There are still things to discover, but the wave of innovation and adapting to the changes to those innovations–both professionally and socially–have generally passed. We’ve adapted, for the most part. The use of mobile devices like mobile phones and tablets are common place now. Almost everyone has a smart phone. And many companies–not all, but most–have adapted their content and UX to have responsive design to adapt to different devices. E-learning has gone back to basics with m-learning by re-adapting chunking and also using responsive design and better UX.

From my view, the initial thrill is over, and we are now settling into the “new normal”. Things that were new and exciting have now become everyday, or have morphed into what they will be. For example, when social media really started to take off, it was an opportunity to create content that could be shared easily in sound bytes or blurbs in a more viral manner than conventional media. It was an opportunity to use content to incite a two-way conversation to discuss and share. Now, social media strategists don’t use social media for discussion, but rather as another marketing medium. Content strategists have been…shall we say…strongly encouraged to look at content as a marketing asset, and look towards content marketing. Content marketers, however, are not content strategists who have some understanding of marketing, but rather it’s expected that they are full-fledged marketers that have some understanding of content. (Trust me. I’ve read the job descriptions posted for many companies.) Both social media and content marketing are things I looked at doing seriously with my career. But as time went on, it was apparent that corporate expectations were shifting, and that these jobs were really meant for business people who were marketers and trained in marketing, not technical communicators. While I have some good sense about business, marketing, and customer service after many years, I don’t consider myself a business person per se. In other words, I would never get an MBA because business topics bore the hell out of me, and there are others who can look and do that sort of thing better than me.

This past year was a year of experimentation for me. When I got out of grad school almost five years ago, I wanted to be an instructional designer until I found that there was no such position as an entry-level instructional designer. I fell back into doing what I had done for years, but with stronger knowledge and experience, which was content strategy and management. I’d been happy doing that work, but always wanted to expand my skills. When I was released from my long-term contract doing content management in 2015, I saw it as an opportunity to do something different. I could start over, if you will. I was hired to do a knowledge management job, but the position was a misnomer. It really didn’t do anything close to knowledge management, and in the end, the projects they had brought me on board for were cancelled, and my contract ended in early 2016.

I was able to pick myself up quickly, taking a copywriting technical writer position. While I definitely had the ability to do the job, I found that my best writing abilities and UX/UI skills couldn’t be used to their fullest potential. I’m used to writing more than two sentences at a time, or re-labeling a button using a single word. I knew I had more to offer than what was required with no opportunities to contribute more than that, so I let that contract expire.

After trying those two other avenues, I found a short-term job doing content strategy and management again. Oh, it was exciting for me! I felt so comfortable doing that kind of work, and I felt confident again in my abilities. I was right to trust my instincts–that there was more to me than writing two sentences at a time, and doing something that I like doing. That, in itself, was a big discovery.

So, through this period of self-discovery, it was rough. I was unhappy with the work I was doing, unhappy with my lack of progress in a positive direction professionally, began to doubt my professional self-worth, and felt conflicted about next steps. Okay, so I’m still working through some of it, but I think the worst is (hopefully) over.

This isn’t to say that it’s all been bad. From those events, I can say that I learned what I’m good at, and what I’m not good at. I learned what I like and don’t like. I started to have a better understanding of my self-worth, at least professionally. Those are big realizations in themselves.

There were also other good things that happened that proved to be positive challenges. I had post-weight loss surgery, and recovered from that well. I’d never had major surgery in my life (and will be avoiding it in every way possible in the future), and found strength within myself to recover quickly and push myself. I attended three conferences in 2016, namely CONDUIT, TC Camp – East, and the STC Summit. All went well, and it gave me a chance to learn and reaffirm my passion for tech comm, meet and network with old and new colleagues, and remind me that this is the profession where I belong. I got more involved in my local STC chapter, and now I’m the vice-president of the chapter, and working my way up the STC food chain, as one might say. I’ve been in charge of STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter’s programming this year, and I’m also co-chair of their conference, CONDUIT, so it’s been very busy for me that way as well, as I gain some new soft skills–and enhance ones I already had.

The election outcome put me in a very bad funk for the latter part of 2016. Dealing with my teenage autistic son has been more challenging than ever. End of the year holidays also don’t put me in a happy mood, usually. It’s usually a stressful time on a number of levels, and I couldn’t wait for the year to be over.

While in many respects, the start of 2017 is a chance to start fresh again, it’s an artificial starting point. I say that because we can start over fresh anytime we want to, if you think about it. It could be in the middle of August, or the end of March, or anytime, really. But with the stress of the holidays and year-end activities, January 1st was as good a date as any to start over, and it’s not something that is only on one day. Fresh starts can take days, weeks, or months. I’ve made some big decisions going forward that will take some time. I will need to be more patient with myself in achieving those goals. I am going to have many challenges, but I have support from my family and my colleagues to move forward in the direction I am intending.

The number one thing that I’ve decided that I need to do in 2017 is I have to get to a place in my life where I can be happy with what I do, and do what I enjoy. That’s easier said than done. To that end, I’m going to focus more on building up my independent consulting business, which I had intended to start after that long-term contract ended in 2015. I got majorly side-tracked in 2016, so 2017 is going to be focused on getting back on track with that. No agency contract distractions like in the past year. I’m going to do it on my own, using entrepreneurship and networking skills. It may be slow going to start, but I have a few good leads so far. Time will tell if they work out successfully. I know I’ll put my full efforts into any projects I do get. I’ll also be learning, both independently and with help, how to run a successful business. Hopefully, this will encourage the spark for me to write here more often about things that are going on that I see in tech comm, and how I view things that I’m learning in the process. I had a recent head-start with my adventures in learning DITA. My initial plans are to continue to train and practice using DITA. I’m also going to be learning Drupal next month, as that seems to be a widely used CMS in my area with some of the leading employers in the area. I’m hoping that adding DITA and Drupal to my “arsenal” of skills will be helpful for my business. I’ll attending CONDUIT and the STC Summit for sure this year, strengthening my professional ties and knowledge. I’ll be working hard still for the STC-PMC, as I intend to run for President of the group this year (we’ll see how that goes!).

Outside of my professional life, there are some hurdles along the way as well, but my goal this year is, well, to get through this year unscathed, or better off than I am now. I don’t mean just financially or professionally, but personally as well. It’s going to be a rebuilding year, and I hope that this time next year, I’ll be a little more upbeat about things, and I will have been able to share more with you over the course of the year.

What are your professional goals this year? Include your comments below.

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Remembering Carrie Fisher, Writer

Posted on December 27, 2016 by TechCommGeekMom

As the list of favorite celebrity talent seems to grow even as 2016 comes to an end, I thought it would be good to share this video, created by the website, The MarySue.

Carrie Fisher, one of the latest stars to have passed (just today, at this writing), is usually thought of for her iconic role as Princess/General Leia Organa in the Star Wars movies. But while I enjoyed her in those roles, I think I appreciated her more as herself. She wasn’t only an actress who appeared in other roles than the Star Wars movies, but I was always impressed by her success as a writer. I admit that I haven’t read her books (but I think I need to look into them now), but I saw the movie based on one of her books, Postcards from the Edge. I always enjoyed watching interviews with her, especially in recent years. I know she was very open about talking about her battles with substance abuse and mental illness. She made it okay for people to realize that you can “have it all” and still have some serious issues, and come out of it in one piece. She helped to de-stigmatize mental illness and show that there can still be a smart, witty person attached to that mental illness who can contribute to society. And for that–I am grateful she made her mark.

The video below also showed a related talent that used her writing skills, specifically as a script doctor. Now doesn’t that sound like a cool job? What struck me in this video was what she’s quoted as saying in the end of why she stopped doing it. It was something that as a technical writer/communicator, has happened to me, and I think happens to a lot of technical communicators these days. We contribute ideas and work for what we do, and don’t get the fair credit or compensation for it. How many times have I done “tests” for companies only to not get the job or hear back from them? Yeah, unfortunately it seems, based on Carrie Fisher’s comments, that it’s not only for technical writers, but script writers as well.

Carrie Fisher was incredibly human–she wasn’t afraid to show her vulnerabilities, and we loved her for it. She definitely knew, by the end of her life, that she had a lot of worth as a person of many talents, and she used them. She will definitely be missed by this geek mom.